American Middle-earth, or: Bible Goes West
The Five-Minute Witchy War, Part 1
We’re almost eight years removed from the debut of D.J. Butler’s tremendously imaginative—and tremendously dense—historical fantasy novel, WITCHY EYE. I’ve read this book three times and am currently on my fourth go-round as I slowly work through it chapter-by-chapter, paying attention to the details and trying to unravel its complexities with the expressed purpose of getting this book in front of more readers.
Last year I had a lot of fun doing “The Five-Minute Silmarillion” series on this site. When it wrapped I immediately thought of doing others, and WITCHY EYE was near the top of that list. As Butler not-so-jokingly said during his X Space about the Ark Press launch, most of his readers of that series were also writers. (This also describes most of the people he knows, such is the life of an author/editor.)
Anyway, I have a soft spot in my heart for this series, but I always have to be honest when describing it to people: these books are best digested with a liberal amount of outside knowledge of history and religion, especially of early 19th century America. Butler doesn’t waste time on exposition to provide context. It’s on the reader to understand who is doing what and where and why based on a good education.
Hopefully I can provide that context, and also emphasize where to find more of it in the book itself. I’ve reviewed it over at Upstream, here is where I’ll dig deeper into the lore and provide a catalogue of characters, at least until these pieces go behind the paywall. Eventually they’ll be videos on the channel, as many things are.
That said, let’s jump into an initial look at WITCHY EYE.
WHO are the leads?
Our protagonist is Sarah Calhoun, a feisty Appalachian teen with a history she doesn’t fully understand. She’s the adoptive daughter of a Tennessee Elector (more on that in a minute), but right in the first few chapters we find out she’s secretly the eldest of three children with a divine/magical inheritance on deck. The story is about her learning who her family is and what responsibilities have fallen on her.
Alongside Sarah is Calvin Calhoun, a pious young man who (accidentally) falls in love with Sarah right around the time he learns he’s not actually related to her. Calvin and Sarah are also accompanied by a monk named Thalanes who knew/served with Sarah’s father in the military “back in the day.” Much of the exposition comes through this character.
Peripherally we’re also made aware of Captain Sir William Johnston Lee, aka “Bad Bill,” a gentleman in exile from Virginia who works as a swordsman for hire in New Orleans until he can pay off a debt and return home. Being a gentleman, he sucks with money, and he’s been trying to pay off the interest for all these years. Like Thalanes, Bill also knew Sarah’s father, and was in charge of hiding her brother after he was born. Now that the events of the first book are in motion, he takes up with Sarah & Co., knowing her true lineage.
Our other main viewpoint characters are the Right Reverend Father Ezekiel Angleton, a “New Light” preacher competing with other religious leaders for converts, and his henchman Obadiah Dogsbody. Angleton knows who Sarah really is and wants to capture her, and he sends Dogsbody to do the heavy lifting.
WHAT is going on?
There’s a conflict underway that is equally spiritual, political, and martial, based on various interpretations of Biblical texts over the centuries. Certain editions of the books of Moses can be read to imply that Adam had a wife before Eve, and spawned different lines of heirs before and after the Fall. Claiming the right to rule in Eden is a matter of lineage, then, and so we’re trying to figure out who can properly claim the crown and throne.
WHERE are we?
Eden, for our purposes here, is in North America. Basically the original thirteen colonies are still intact, although the lay of the land is different; the United States never came into being, as we learn that George Washington and the other upstarts were paid off and thus the Revolutionary War never happened.
Now we’re in an America ruled by an Emperor, who gets to rule by consent of the thirteen Electors, one of whom is Andrew Calhoun—Sarah’s supposed father. When she learns that her real father was married to “Mad Hannah” Penn, wife of the Emperor, and that she has a younger brother and sister, she has to face a new responsibility as a member of the Imperial family as well as the heiress to her mother’s kingdom.
WHEN does this go down?
The year is 1815. While the political landscape looks different from history, several movements are the same, not least of which is the spirit of religious upheaval and the aggressive expansion of several different sects, mingled with local lore and superstition, be it rural Appalachee or Native American in origin.
Fragments of Old World empires have found their footing, and European influence still has a role to play, but for the most part you’ve got the Empire under Thomas Penn, covered by the Atlantic on the east and Louisiana on the west.
WHY is all this happening?
In a sense, it’s following the natural rhythm of society over the course of human history; there is peace, then there’s conflict, then there’s all-out war. This is the meaning of an oft-echoed song in the book, contrasting a fictional “Peter Plowshare” with his nemesis, “Simon Sword.”
This hearkens back to biblical poetry about plowshares in peacetime and swords in war, and how the steel for one can be beaten into the form of the other. We’re in the part of the process where Simon Sword is waking up and he’s starting to undo Peter Plowshare’s hard work, because war always wipes out the gains of the peaceful worker.
HOW does it play out?
Well, subscribe for the upcoming summaries. There are about 30 chapters in the book and I’ll write up summaries 4-5 chapters at a time. This is a trilogy with a sequel trilogy currently on hiatus, but hopefully more people will read the originals and push Butler to finish the rest. He’s a busy dude and hasn’t stopped writing or editing, he’s just got to focus on where the responses are.
So stay tuned and buy your copy of WITCHY EYE through my affiliate link: